PVH Shows Positive Momentum to Achieve Sustainable Business

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PVH is on track for its products and business operations to eventually generate zero waste, zero carbon emissions and zero hazardous chemicals, and for its products to be circular in the consumer cycle, according to the company’s 12th annual corporate responsibility report, published Wednesday.

The report is being issued during both the COVID-19 pandemic and the global movement against systemic racism and social inequality. While PVH has had to adapt much of its corporate responsibility work to the current environment, it remains committed to delivering on its long-term strategy and its focus on reducing the company’s negative impacts to zero, increasing positive impacts to 100 percent, and improving the lives of the over one million people across its value chain.

“While the apparel industry will be uniquely transformed post-pandemic, we have a responsibility to help shape this ‘new normal’ for the benefit of all stakeholders. We are steadfast in our commitments to prioritize climate action, to build tighter, more resilient supply chains, to fight for social justice, and to deliver more sustainable products to our consumers,” said Manny Chirico, chairman and chief executive officer of PVH.

As far as representation and diversity go, Chirico said the company has “a lot more to do,” and they are fully committed to doing the work.

“Over the next few months we will be publishing a set of targets focused on racial equality, representation and advancement, and we commit to disclosing the actions being taken across our organization to meet these targets,” said Chirico.

According to the report, PVH’s global workforce by gender is 67.1 percent female and 32.9 percent male. Women in leadership positions account for 50.6 percent. At the senior vice president and above level, 42.2 percent are female and 57.8 percent are male.

In taking into account the total workforce by race/ethnicity, some 38.6 percent are white; 60.9 percent are non-white; 15 percent are Black and African American, 32.1 percent are Hispanic or Latino, 8.8 percent are Asian, 3.1 percent are multiethnic, 1.5 parent are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 0.4 percent are American Indian or Alaskan Native, and 0.5 percent declined to self-identify. Among leadership, 81 percent are white, 4 percent are Black, 7 percent are Asian, 5 percent are Hispanic, and 3 percent are other, according to the report.

One target is to empower women by removing barriers to advancement and create pathways opportunity and choice for women in the PVH supply chain. A key target is professional and life skills development programs and services to be made available to 500,000 women across the PVH supply chain by 2030.

As far as fostering inclusion and diversity, PVH said it looks to create an environment where every individual is valued. The target is to expand unconscious bias training to its more than 38,000 PVH associates globally and achieve gender parity in leadership positions. The training is expected to be achieved by 2023 and gender party in leadership by 2030.

The company also looks to develop talent and expand professional skills development and digital literacy programs through PVH University to reach its over 38,000 PVH associates globally by 2023.

In the report, PVH noted that the company looks to advance living wages and create conditions for national living wage agreements through industry-wide collective bargaining linked to its purchasing practices. The target is for 100 percent of its main suppliers in key production countries to proactively support industry-wide collective bargaining to achieve living wages. The plan is for two key countries by 2025 and four by 2030. Its approach is to understand the compensation and payment systems of all suppliers by conducting factory assessments and providing advisory services. It looks to embed “global purchasing practices commitments” across its company to better support its suppliers’ ability to pay workers the agreed upon living wage in their respective countries.

Further, the company is working toward its offices, warehouses and stores to be powered by 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and to drive a 30 percent reduction in its supply chain emissions by 2030. It also expects that all PVH offices, distribution centers and stores will achieve zero waste and eliminate single-use plastic by 2030. In addition, water leaving its wet processors will have zero hazardous chemicals and will be filtered for harmful microfibers by 2025.

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